The invention is generally related to the transmission and reception of audio broadcasts, e.g., from radio stations and the like.
Radio has been an important part of our culture for many years. Despite competition from relatively newer broadcast media such as television and the Internet, many people still find radio to be an important source of news, information, and entertainment. Radio has also significantly advanced since the days of analog AM and FM broadcasts. For example, radio broadcasts are now capable of being broadcast in a digital format, typically using a packet-based communication medium, and often providing better sound quality than with older analog technologies. Digital radio broadcasts are also capable of transmitting additional information to listeners, e.g., station call letters, program information, etc.
One continually strong market for radio stations has been listeners in automobiles, particularly due to the fact that visual information available from television and the Internet is not compatible with keeping one""s eyes on the road. Mobile radio receivers commonly known as car radios or car stereos have long been provided as standard equipment in automobiles and other vehicles.
Mobile radio receivers have always suffered from the problem of varying signal strengths of audio broadcast signals such as radio broadcasts. Radio stations are capable of transmitting over only a certain geographical area, so the farther a receiver gets from a radio transmitter, the weaker the signal, and the poorer the reception by the receiver. Topographical factors such as buildings, tunnels, mountains, etc. can also affect signal strength. Thus, as a listener of a particular radio station rides along in an automobile, it is not uncommon for the reception of the audio broadcast signal to continually increase and decrease in quality. Furthermore, for travelers that are merely passing through a geographical area, such travelers will often eventually lose reception as they get farther away from the radio station.
More often than not, the signal strength of an audio broadcast signal will weaken at the most inopportune times, such as the last inning of a baseball game, during a news conference, during a breaking weather report, during a heated discussion on talk radio, etc. Missing out on an interesting broadcast can be significantly frustrating to listeners, so the risk of losing reception of an audio broadcast signal has always been considered to be a significant drawback of radio.
Outside of the knowledge of many listeners, however, is the fact that alternate sources of an audio broadcast signal may exist. For example, FCC regulations often limit the transmission power of radio stations in certain areas, requiring that radio stations broadcast over multiple carrier frequencies from geographically dispersed transmitters to adequately cover a particular listening area. In addition, many audio broadcast signals are now available on the Internet, and are capable of being accessed by suitable streaming programs executed by computers.
When a listener is unaware of an alternate source of an audio broadcast signal, the listener is required to suffer through poor reception (if analog) or intermittent reception (if digital), or to manually search for other radio stations that may contain the desired information. And even if a listener is aware of a particular alternate source for an audio broadcast signal, the user is still required to manually interact with a radio receiver to select the alternate source.
Therefore, a significant need continues to exist in the art for a manner of alleviating the frustration associated with weak or lost reception of audio broadcast signals. In particular, a significant need continues to exist for a manner of facilitating the identification and reception of audio broadcast signals from alternate sources.
The invention addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art by providing an apparatus, program product, and method that utilize embedded source identity information within an audio broadcast signal to facilitate the reception of the audio broadcast signal from an alternate source. While the invention has a multitude of other uses that will become more apparent below, embedded source identity information may be used to facilitate the automated selection of an alternate source, e.g., in response to poor reception of the primary source of the audio broadcast signal, so that a listener is less likely to miss interesting portions of an audio broadcast.
Any number of different types of alternate sources may be identified by embedded source identity information consistent with the invention. For example, particularly where the audio broadcast signal is a radio broadcast from a radio station, embedded source identity information may identify another radio station that broadcasts the audio broadcast signal over a different frequency. Embedded source identity information may also be used to identify a telephone number that a listener may call to continue listening to the audio broadcast. Furthermore, embedded source identity information may be used to identify a network address (e.g., a URL) that a listener may be connected to over a computer network. It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the instant disclosure that other alternate sources may be identified by embedded source identity information, and thus the invention is not limited to the particular types of alternate sources described herein.
It will also be appreciated that both the reception and the transmission of an audio broadcast may accommodate the use of embedded source identity information consistent with the invention.
From the standpoint of reception, an audio broadcast may be received in a manner consistent with the invention by receiving an audio broadcast signal from a first source, detecting a source identifier in the audio broadcast signal that identifies an alternate source for the audio broadcast signal, and receiving the audio broadcast signal from the alternate source identified by the source identifier. From the standpoint of transmission, an audio signal may be transmitted in a manner consistent with the invention by embedding a source identifier within an audio signal, and broadcasting the audio signal with the source identifier embedded therein.
These and other advantages and features, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and of the advantages and objectives attained through its use, reference should be made to the Drawings, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is described exemplary embodiments of the invention.